1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (“LCD”) panel and a method of manufacturing the LCD panel. More particularly, the present invention relates to an LCD panel having improved productivity and a method of manufacturing the LCD panel.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a liquid crystal display (LCD) device displays images by controlling light transmittance when a voltage is applied. Such LCD devices may include a liquid crystal layer operating by a patterned vertical alignment (“PVA”) mode, which is a type of vertical alignment (“VA”) mode for the LCD device, in which liquid crystal compositions are arranged and aligned in different directions by a patterned transparent electrode to form a liquid crystal domain, which increases the viewing angle of the LCD device.
Polarized ultraviolet (UV) light is used to irradiate a photocrosslinkable copolymer including a mesogenic group having liquid crystal properties, the mesogenic group being referred as a reactive mesogen (“RM”), to induce anisotropy in the photocrosslinkable copolymer, and heat is applied to the photocrosslinkable copolymer to enhance the anisotropy of an alignment layer to align liquid crystal molecules.
When an RM that is not cured (i.e., where curing is incomplete) and remains in the liquid crystal layer, an afterimage may form in the LCD device from secondary crosslinking, thereby deteriorating display quality. To overcome this, the energy provided to cure the light reactive monomer in a curing process may be increased, or the exposure time (and hence net dose) may be increased. In addition, curing time of the RM may be reduced by use of an RM having a more sensitive light reactive monomer with high light reaction speed for rapid cure.
However, increasing the illumination intensity of a light source provided in the curing process, may lead to increased power consumption and manufacturing costs. Furthermore, the liquid crystal molecules and/or an alignment layer may be damaged, thereby deteriorating display quality. Moreover, when the exposure time is increased, productivity may be deteriorated as time required for the manufacturing process of the LCD device is increased.